PM Modi’s visit to Russia underscores the importance of Russia in India's foreign policy
This week marked several high-profile meetings amongst senior leaders around the globe, discussing primarily various conflicts and possible outcomes. PM Narendra Modi, in his first state visit during his third stint, visited Russia and Austria. The State visit by the India PM was the first since the Ukraine war and underscores the primacy of Russia in India’s state of affairs. Meanwhile, all North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) leaders assembled in Washington DC to discuss global geopolitics. Ukraine and the Middel East featured prominently in all the discussions, even though the flavours were significantly different.
The India-Russia joint statement following President Putin and PM Modis’ bilateral meetings read “The Sides highlighted the imperative of peaceful resolution of the conflict around Ukraine through dialogue and diplomacy including engagement between both parties. They noted with appreciation relevant proposals of mediation and good offices aimed at peaceful resolution of the conflict by international law and based on the UN Charter in its entirety and totality. “Earlier, PM Modi during one of the televised speeches of the two leaders told his Russian counterpart “peace is of utmost importance” and solution to Ukraine could not be found on the battlefield. He expressed serious concern regarding the bombing of a children’s hospital in Kyiv and said “When innocent children are murdered, one sees them die, the heart pains and that pain is unbearable.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with whom PM Modi has had several telephone calls in the past, called the Russia state visit by India “a blow to peace efforts.”
NATO Secretary General, Mr Stoltenberg in the run-up to the NATO summit said “Allies will agree a financial pledge for Ukraine”, and that he also expects more immediate military support to Ukraine.” Ukraine is moving closer to NATO “. The close relationship with NATO was one of the reasons Russia came marching into Ukraine. It was a tightrope walk for PM Modi, in Russia, given the relatively new strategic relationships, he has developed in his last decade of being at the helm, crucial among them being the India-US partnership. It would be worth mentioning that In the wake of the war in Ukraine, India has not yet verbally criticised Russia, for its aggression and has also stayed away from multilateral resolutions against Moscow. In the first few months, of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, several US top leaders had criticised India’s stance regarding the war, and even a threat of sanctions was discussed.
However, with deft diplomatic efforts made by both long-term partners, the high-decibel criticism was restricted to closed-door meetings. PM Modi’s state visit to Russia opened some of the past heartburn regarding Ukraine in Washington. US State Department spokesperson Mattew Miller said “US has raised concerns with India regarding its relationship with Russia”. He added “We would urge India, as we do any country when it engages with Russia, to make clear that any resolution to the conflict in Ukraine needs to be one that respects the UN charter, that respects Ukraine's territorial integrity,” This comes at a time when the US has been seen to be one of the most important allies of India in the recent past.
Interestingly President Putin upon re-election chose to visit Beijing in one of his first official trips and followed it with a bilateral last week, on the sidelines of the SCO summit in Kazakhstan. China and Russia have mutually agreed to be friends without any limitations, and are widely seen as challengers to what they allege as the US-led democratic order. India and China are on an extremely rough patch due to the military aggression on India’s borders. India managed to walk the tight rope for now, but at some point of time it will have to balance it out with more actionable statements on world conflicts.
(The writer is a policy analyst; views are personal)
